Episode 38
John Doe (02-24-03)

Brief Synopsis:  Bug uses forensics to trace a vagrant's final steps and find his killer.

90% of this episode focused on Bug.  It was great to get some insight into the quiet, reclusive Bug.

I laughed at the detective’s attempt to say Bug’s last name and Bug rattling it off.  I guess if you live with it all your life you get good at saying it (I wonder how long he had to practice that one).  I feel for them both.  I’d never be able to say it and Bug having to tell everyone how to say it…

Jordan likes to piss people off.  I think she was born with the gift to rub people the wrong way.  Though I agree with her attitude when she and Bug met the Detective.  He did come off as being very detached and a ‘who cares attitude’, borderline racial.

Bug throws himself into this case.  Jordan’s gone for a few hours, she returns and Bug’s got more answers than seems humanly possible.  Made you wonder why he was taking this so personally.  He tracks our ‘John Doe’ to Buck’s Tavern (a bar) where he has is own run in with the man who killed John Doe.  I was surprised at Bug’s self-defense.  Didn’t know he had it in him.  He eventually—after Jordan’s tries to get him to take a step back and Lily tries to stop him from leaving—finds where John Doe came from.  In the process he gets caught himself.

When the gang realizes he’s gone they pull Garret into the mix.  Garret doesn’t always come across as the caring easy to talk to guy (he is after all their boss) but here you knew he cared and he acted right away.  I’m proud of how he stepped in and acted.  On the note of Garret I was pleased with his response to the DA on not calling the cop killing a suicide.  She’s going to be nothing but trouble in Garret’s life.

They find Bug.  Jordan rushes over to him, kisses his cheek and gives him a bear hug and Nigel gives him a heart-felt hug as well.  You can see the relief on their faces.  I think their unrestrained actions and their verbalized thoughts of relief at his safety did a lot for Bug.

We learned quite a bit about Bug tonight.  He thinks he doesn’t belong here (anywhere).  He thought at this point in his life he’d be married with a family, not living in the same apartment when he’d came here to study.  That in itself says volumes.

His speech at the end to Lily about finally becoming an American citizen was touching.  Lily’s comment telling him he is home was a nice way to end the episode.  I think Bug after this episode might feel a little more at home with his co-workers—his friends.

Note: If Bug just got his citizenship then his parents had to have moved here after he was born.  I wonder why they would up and leave a good job when their children wouldn’t even be citizens.  And how did they manage to come here and work themselves if they weren’t citizens?  Something is all screwed up.  And doesn’t Lily call Bugs mom in this episode and she’s overseas—not in the US—yet a few episodes ago Bug calls an American phone number when calling his mother to wish her a happy birthday.  They’ve really got Bug’s background screwed up.

3 out of 5 Dead Bodies.  Nice to learn a little more about Bug.